Jun. 12, 2012

Written by

Jennifer Justus

The Tennessean

If you go

What: Nourish, a dinner and auction to benefit The Nashville Food Project. Features some of the South’s best chefs including John Fleer of Canyon Kitchen at Lonesome Valley in Cashiers, N.C.; Tandra Watkins of Ashley’s Restaurant at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock, Ark.; Jason McConnell of Red Pony in Franklin; Ryan Smith of Empire State South in Atlanta; and Hal Holden-Bache of Lockeland Table in Nashville. When: 6 p.m. Tuesday Where: Nashville Farmers’ Market Tickets: $160 a person, $1,280 for table of eight. Details:www.nourishnashville.com.

Tallu Schuyler Quinn is executive director of The Nashville Food Project, and one of her many responsibilities involves overseeing meal preparation for the homeless and working poor that the nonprofit organization serves.

The group gleans food from its own gardens and a variety of sources such as Second Harvest and Society of St. Andrew to put together healthy, balanced and hot meals at a low cost.

How did you learn to cook?

Oh man, still learning — always. A lot of places and people, books, TV, my friends, my parents, Mark Bittman’s video blogs on The New York Times website. I bet a lot of folks my age have learned from TV shows — from Julia Child and the Frugal Gourmet when we were kids to Ina Garten to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Anytime I’m in a restaurant and there’s an option to sit where I can see the cooks doing their thing, I ask to be seated there because of the chances to watch and learn.

What is your favorite ingredient at the moment? How do you like to prepare it?

I am really digging radishes right now. We get a large bunch of French Breakfast radishes in our CSA bag each week. I like to serve and eat them whole, dipped in melted butter that’s been well-salted. I should also say I’m seven and a half months pregnant and taking down about a half a watermelon a day, even though it’s not quite in season here in Tennessee.

Please tell us about one of your favorite meals lately for Nashville Food Project.

Lettuce season has just left us, but all spring, we served up the most gorgeous salads alongside the entrees. Our salads were made with the different leaf lettuces we were growing in our gardens. The residents we serve couldn’t get enough of these salads — sometimes topped with fruit (gleaned from Society of St. Andrew), homemade croutons (made from day-old bread), bacon (from Second Harvest) or, if we can spring for it, cheese. Always topped with a vinaigrette made by one of our volunteers.

Do you have a favorite cookbook?

Zuni Cafe by Judy Rodgers, The Art of Simple Cooking by Alice Waters and The Victory Garden Cookbook (oldie but there’s nothing else like it) by Marian Morash.

What advice do you have for the novice home cook?

Keep good knives and keep them sharp. Try simple things and don’t go overboard with spices or herbs. I’m just a salt and pepper cook, and it’s good that way. Also, there’s no need to cook with expensive olive oils. Save the expensive stuff for salads or drizzling just before serving.

You have a dinner coming up to benefit Nashville Food Project. What’s the thing you’d most like people to know about it?

That every dollar raised that night will go toward feeding hungry people in Nashville. At The Nashville Food Project, we make nickels scream and run a very lean operation with low overhead so that we can focus on getting food — healthy nutritious food — to people who need it.

If you could choose your final meal, what would it be?

I’d definitely be with my husband, Robbie, probably in our kitchen, eating fried eggs, good toast and crispy bacon. We ate the most incredible apricot preserves at Boulette’s Larder on our honeymoon in San Fransisco — so maybe some of that for the toast.